Functional complexity of field devices is increasing constantly. Therefore, the expenses for development, implementation and test of devices are growing. The concept of Rapid Prototyping has been developed to enhance development processes. This article describes an approach to rapidly realize a large number of field device prototypes or system application prototypes by the means of software prototypes and virtualization.The support for the device development based on application profiles is emphasized.The methodologies are illustrated using an example implementing a PROFINET IO application profile.